First, under his leadership, the party lost the Lok Sabha election that May to the Congress-led coalition.
M Venkaiah Naidu’s dramatic proclamation did not surprise his BJP colleagues because it was coming for a while.
For the past few months, the buzz in the BJP was Naidu was being considered for the posts of the President and the Vice-President.
That was on October 18, 2004 when he announced he would quit as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, citing his wife, Usha’s illness as the reason and the need to spend more time with her.
He described Vajpayee as the “vikas purush” (development man) and Advani as the “loh purush” (iron man).